The word is a transliteration of the Russian word
Гласность and was frequently used by Gorbachev to specify the policies he
believed might help reduce the corruption at the top of the
Communist Party and the Soviet government, and moderate the abuse
of administrative power in the Central Committee. Russian human rights activist
and dissident Lyudmila Alexeyeva explained
glasnost as a word that "had been in the Russian language for
centuries. It was in the dictionaries and lawbooks as long as there
had been dictionaries and lawbooks. It was an ordinary,
hardworking, nondescript word that was used to refer to a process,
any process of justice of governance, being conducted in the
open."[2]

Glasnost can also refer to the specific period in the history of
the USSR during the 1980s when there was less censorship and greater freedom of
information.

Contents

Areas of
concern

While "glasnost" is associated with freedom of speech, the main goal of
this policy was to make the country's management transparent and
open to debate, thus circumventing the narrow circle of apparatchiks who
previously exercised complete control of the economy. Through
reviewing the past or current mistakes being made, it was hoped
that the Soviet people would back reforms such as perestroika.

Glasnost gave new freedoms to the people, such as a greater
freedom of information by opening the secret parts for unallowed
literature in the libraries[3][4] and a
greater freedom of speech — a radical change, as control of speech
and suppression of government criticism had previously been a
central part of the Soviet system. There was also a greater degree
of freedom within the media. In the late 1980s, the Soviet
government came under increased criticism, as did Leninist ideology (which
Gorbachev had attempted to preserve as the foundation for reform),
and members of the Soviet population were more outspoken in their
view that the Soviet government had become a failure. Glasnost did
indeed provide freedom of expression, far beyond what Gorbachev had
intended, and changed citizens' views towards the government, which
played a key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mikhail Gorbachev instituted the idea of glasnost in the 1980's,
giving the Soviets a new idea of freedom of speech. Giving the
Soviets this freedom of speech led to the reduction of censorship
in publishing, radio, television, and other media. Soviet officials
didn't agree with glasnost because it threatened their statuses as
authority figures and the officials who spoke out were then
dismissed and replaced. Gorbachev replaced over half of the party's
leadership, because they didn't agree with his ideals of free
speech.

Gorbachev expressed that glasnost was needed because of the Chernobyl
disaster, as after the reactor exploded, information was
suppressed leaving nearby residents unaware of the dangers posed by
remaining in close proximity to it.

Effects

Relaxation of censorship resulted in the Communist Party
losing its grip on the media. Before long, much to the
embarrassment of the authorities, the media began to expose severe
social and economic problems which the Soviet government had long
denied and covered up. Long-denied problems such as poor housing,
food shortages, alcoholism, widespread pollution, creeping
mortality rates and the second-rate position of women were now
receiving increased attention. Moreover, under glasnost, the people
were able to learn significantly more about the horrors committed
by the government when Joseph Stalin was in power. Although Nikita
Khrushchev denounced Stalin's personality cult,
information about the true proportions of his atrocities was still
suppressed. In all, the very positive view of Soviet life which had
long been presented to the public by the official media was being
rapidly dismantled, and the negative aspects of life in the Soviet
Union were brought into the spotlight. This began to undermine the
faith of the public in the Soviet system.

Political openness continued to produce unintended consequences. In elections to the regional
assemblies of the Soviet Union's constituent republics, nationalists swept the
board. As Gorbachev had weakened the system of internal political
repression, the ability of the USSR's central Moscow government to
impose its will on the USSR's constituent republics had been
largely undermined. During the 1980s, calls for greater
independence from Moscow's rule grew louder. This was especially
marked in the Baltic Republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which had been annexed into the Soviet
Union by Joseph
Stalin in 1940. Nationalist feeling also took hold in other
Soviet republics such as Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Starting in the mid-1980s, the Baltic states used the reforms
provided by glasnost to assert their rights to protect their
environment (for example during the Phosphorite War) and their historic
monuments and, later, their claims to sovereignty and independence.
When the Balts withstood outside threats, they exposed an
irresolute Kremlin. Bolstering separatism in other
Soviet republics, the Balts triggered multiple challenges to the Soviet Union.
Supported by Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, the Baltic republics
asserted their sovereignty.

The rise of nationalism under glasnost also reawakened simmering
ethnic tensions throughout the union. For example, in February
1988, Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly
ethnic Armenian region in the Azerbaijan SSR, passed a resolution
calling for unification with the Armenian SSR, which
sparked the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

The freedoms generated under glasnost enabled increased contact
between Soviet citizens and the western world, particularly with
the United
States. Restrictions on travel were loosened, allowing
increased business and cultural contact. For example, one key
meeting location was in the U.S. at the Dakin Building, then owned by American
philanthropist Henry Dakin, who had
extensive Russian contacts:

During the late 1980s, as glasnost and perestroika led to the liquidation of the
Soviet empire, the Dakin building was the location for a series of
groups facilitating United States-Russian contacts. They included
the Center for U.S.-U.S.S.R. Initiatives, which helped more than
1000 Americans visit the Soviet Union and more than 100 then-Soviet
citizens visit the U.S.[5]